Several years ago, while I was praying, I saw a vision of walls surrounding the church. The walls were broken and crumbling, threatening to fail completely. God spoke to me that the walls represented marriages in our church–and that I needed to intercede, to literally “stand in the gap” for the marriages in our body. By God’s grace, many of the marriages that had been struggling during that time are now strong and many of the gaps have been rebuilt.
During my month-long stay in Mexico, I had an opportunity to “survey the walls” so to speak. I discovered that, at least in Jaumave, things are not well in the church, because things are not well in many marriages. Mexico is greatly in need of people who will stand in the gap for marriages.
While I was in Mexico, Jim and Caroline spent many hours counseling and praying with Manuel. Manuel’s wife, Lupe, recently took up with another man and has been threatening to leave Manuel for the other man. She has used the threat of leaving as a way to control her husband–if he attempts to discipline their daughters or enforce any boundaries whatsoever, she tells him she’ll leave. As a result, Manuel and Lupe’s five daughters run wild–the older ones introducing their very young sisters to much older men. The entire family is in turmoil. Manuel struggles with giving up hope. He struggles to be head of his home. Lupe openly rebels against God and her husband. The daughters pit father against mother, and do whatever they please. The church–seven individuals–is in peril because of the breakup of a marriage. Manuel and Lupe need people who will stand in the gap and help to rebuild the wall.
Tonio, the sixteen (now seventeen) year old boy who lived with us, was married via a shotgun wedding at age 14. He hasn’t seen his wife in at least a year, hasn’t seen his baby girl grow up. He’s growing in Christ–and that means he’s in a really tough spot. He alternates between crying over his wife and his baby girl and claiming that they mean nothing to him. He’s not sure if the marriage was legal–but he’s not sure that it wasn’t. He’s a sixteen year old boy–he gets crushes and has girls with crushes on him. He’s also married. Or at least, he might be. Tonio has to wrestle with what he is to do about his past, with what was done before he became a believer. Tonio needs wisdom to know how to proceed–how to mend his section of the wall.
Santiago started coming to church and to Jim and Caroline’s couples’ Bible Study alone. He and his wife were separated–the children lived with her. The group of couples started praying, and one Sunday Monica and the children showed up at church! Santiago and Monica and their two youngest came to visit us during my last week there. I enjoyed coloring with their little boys, but even more, I enjoyed the obvious testimony being played out before me. Santiago and Monica are seeking God together and God is rebuilding their marriage–and expanding their family. Monica is due anytime. By God’s grace, He is rebuilding the wall.
I gave three examples, but the trend reaches far beyond. Broken families abound. A man marries a new woman without obtain a legal divorce from his first wife. Couples move in together without getting married. A woman takes off to a different town with most of her children–she leaves one nine year old daughter behind. Young girls marry much older men as a way to escape the mountain villages. Daughters engage in prostitution. Adultery, fornication, bigamy, abandonment. And this in the church. The walls around the Mexican church are in desperate straits.
May the church respond as Nehemiah did when he received the report that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down. “So it was when I heard these words, that I sat down a wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” (Neh 1:4) Nehemiah fasted and prayed. He mourned over Jerusalem. Eventually, he went to Jerusalem–to survey the wall for himself and to rally the people to rebuild it. I pray that God will raise up from among us Nehemiahs, who will pray and fast for the Mexican church–and some who will go and help to rebuild the wall. Please join me in praying for laborers to enter this field.